ABSTRACT
To protect and manage a company successfully, the Board's primary focus is to optimise short- and long-term shareholder return, with the aim of maintaining a steadily growing share price. For the Board, delivering targets is sacrosanct. This chapter focuses on some of the ways that marketers can engage with the Board once they have started to invest in-market to help manage the inherent business risks and maintain Board confidence. These include: embracing failure as much as success, investing in pre-agreed tranches and monitoring performance from day one and optimising in-market performance through 'test & learn'. Failure, as well as success, is an inherent part of our natural world – and a huge learning opportunity for those who embrace it. Once the Board agrees to invest, marketers need to demonstrate that they are managing the company's investment money responsibly.
